Jim Brock: Hard rain’s still fallin’ – time to move forward

Thursday

Jul 31, 2014 at 11:41 AMJul 31, 2014 at 11:41 AM

By Jim BrockMore Content Now

Last week’s botched execution of convicted killer Joseph Wood was enough to make anyone sick to their stomach. Unless, of course, you believe justice and revenge are one in the same.According to a July 24 CNN report, witness accounts said “Wood gasped and struggled to breathe during his nearly two-hour execution,” while reporter Troy Hayden described his last breaths like “a fish on shore gulping for air.”But a relative of the victims had a different opinion. “I don’t believe he was gasping for air; I don’t believe he was suffering. It sounded to me like [he] was snoring,” relative Jeanne Brown said in the report. “You don’t know what excruciating is. What’s excruciating is seeing your dad laying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister laying there in a pool of blood. This man deserved it. And I shouldn’t really call him a man,” she said.While Wood’s attorneys tried to stop the execution more than halfway through, Wood finally expired before the execution could finally be stopped.Attorney Dale Baich later said, “We will renew our efforts to get information about the manufacturer of drugs as well as how Arizona came up with the experimental formula of drugs it used today.”Even Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, has ordered the Department of Corrections to review the execution.This has always been a difficult topic, and I can’t say I blame the woman for feeling hate and anger toward the man who killed her loved ones.But as the old saying goes, “An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.”As we continue to carry our message of freedom and democracy to small nations around the world, we seem to forget that our own house is in a deplorable state. According to statistics from Amnesty International, at least 680 executions were carried out worldwide in 2012. Of that number, 314 were in Iran; 129 were in Iraq; 79 were in Saudi Arabia; and 43 were in the U.S. It’s ironic that we share a category with at least two nations we feel compelled to civilize.What’s worse, the Hobby Lobby ruling passed down from the Supreme Court has been called a “huge win” for the so-called pro-life group.Pro-life is the biggest misnomer in modern history. A better handle would be “pro-birth.”You cannot proclaim to be pro-life and support the death penalty.“For we know Him who said, ‘VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.’ And again, ‘THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.’” – Hebrews 10:30 NASWe don’t get to kill people – that job is reserved for the Creator of the Universe.My understanding of biblical text notwithstanding, we must remember that the Constitution of the United States is not a religious document and that our nation is not a theocracy. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the federal government and the states from imposing cruel and unusual punishment, along with excessive bail and fines. The First Amendment protects the people from the rigid principles of religious institutions, and it protects religious institutions from the regulations of the government.Government and religion must be mutually exclusive. Our Founding Fathers knew this to be true.And for those of us who call ourselves followers or simply admirers of Christ, we should take a long hard look at ourselves when we find acts of violence justifiable and even gratifying.“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” – Matthew 5:44 KJVThere is no such thing as a black-and-white world. Reality exists in an endless array of color. Often times, there are more than two sides to every story, and morality cannot exist in a vacuum.The reason to abolish the death penalty is not so much for the benefit of the criminals as it is for our benefit as a nation – as a people. If you think the fear of the death penalty stopped the numerous mass shootings over the past few years, think again!We have to move forward.We are a nation stained by a history of slavery, the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow Laws, and Japanese internment among other things. It is difficult to proclaim morality in this world when we our closets are full of skeletons.We should never apologize for integrity, and putting someone in prison for life without parole – in solitary confinement if necessary – instead of executing them shows that we are no longer savages.The only thing that separates the best of us from the worst of us is our circumstances. Killing has been a part of human behavior since the first of us roamed the earth, but for the first time, we have the power to do something different.Bob Dylan once wrote, “Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son?And what did you see, my darling young one?I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around itI saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on itI saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’I saw a white ladder all covered with waterI saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all brokenI saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young childrenAnd it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hardIt’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.”Ponder that!——Jim Brock writes for the Nebraska City News-Press.